Knowing When To Stop

Looking round the engine bay for leaks after I fitted the sump baffles, I noticed some oil on the bellypan some way from the engine. It turned out the hose supplying the remote oil pressure sender & oil light switch was perished. “Ah” I thought “that’s an 8mm hose that is”. I was just about to go in the house & order a new one when I thought I go about this the right way & measure the pipe first. So I slackened the clamp, pulled the hose back a little & measured to pipe with callipers – 6mm.

 

OK – Maybe I remembered it wrong.

 

I ordered 6mm hose.

 

When it arrived it looked far too small - & indeed it was – there was a kink in the pipe where I’d measured it.

 

I should’ve stopped, gone inside, ordered 8mm hose & put the car back together. Instead I thought “I could convert the fittings to 6mm if I could find some 6mm pipe”. Well what I found was 5mm pipe, but thought it’d be OK & modified the fittings by cutting off the 8mm tails & soldering in the 5mm pipe, I put the 6mm hose on did up the clamps (a lot) & started the engine.

Oil gushed from the sender end. I took it apart, cleaned it & re-soldered it, next time I started the engine it was fine.

 

The following day I wanted to take the fury to my dad’s, I set off, but after 8 miles or so (appropriately enough in Effingham), the oil light came on under acceleration & the oil pressure gauge dropped, I pulled into a petrol station, opened the bonnet & there was a pool of oil under the engine end of the hose. I bought another litre of oil (£12!!) from the garage tightened the engine end clamp & nursed the car home, keeping the revs as low as possible, even switching the engine off to roll down hill (having no power assistance on brakes or steering helps in these situations).

 

So now I’m waiting for the 6mm hose fittings to arrive so I can re-modify the system again & make the car serviceable again (sigh).

BAFFLED!

So, took the car to the hill up to Newlands Corner (Trodds lane?) sat idling long enough for the oil to find it's own level, then floored it in 1st, 2nd & 3rd.

IT WORKS!

Not so much as a flicker from the oil light. No leaks when I got home either, apart from a possible weep from the pipe that supplies the oil pressure sender, I'd not touched that in the sump works, but the hose is rather large for the fitting - new hose on order.

I shan't have to be so careful with the throttle on the next blatt.

Celebratory madeira cake & custard for me! Hurrah!

Baffling

Right, definitely positively the last upgrade for this "down" season.

As reported elsewhere, the Fury's oil light comes on under hard acceleration, it used to only happen after the car had been idling "nose up" on a hill, but seems to be getting more frequent - or maybe I'm just looking for it more often. Anyway, the sump is a cast one from bought from Westfield, it is baffled, but the baffle consists of a horizontal deck, with two down plates, which reach neither to the sides, nor to the bottom. They don't stop the oil moving the wrong way, they just inconvenience it a little.

 

Initially I thought I'd just make the baffles a better fit, then I thought about replacing it completely.

I bought a couple of "oil surge control valves" - stupidly expensive rubber flaps - & made a baffle plate with them in. It was riveted to angle brackets with sealed pop rivets, so the ball cant escape into the sump, then drilled through the brackets from the outside (Eeek!). I made gaskets for all three bracket positions, put copper washers both sides of the joint AND wet assembled the M4 bolts, so hopefully they won't leak.

 

It's cranked like that to avoid the drain plug which is naturally in just the wrong place.

The new deck is essentially the same as the old one, but has a "gutter" bent into it to encourage the oil to run forwards to where the pick-up pipe is & the dipstick hole is flanged down, so the dipstick should always find it's way through, which it didn't before

 

Then I bolted the sump back up & went in for my tea.

Will it work? I've no idea, but I plan to find out tomorrow.

A Good Hour's Work

With Mrs Blatter away touring Europe with Daughter-the-younger, I started the day cleaning the kitchen, then painted round the new tiles in the bathroom, then at about 10:00 decided I’d earnt an hour on the car, so a few things got done:-

Changed the exhaust manifold gasket

Fire extinguisher mounted in the boot & carpet cut round it.

Off side engine mount lowered

Top of trans tunnel removed & washers that had been cutting the gear stick boot trimmed back. Top re-fitted

Throttle pedal return spring made & fitted

Airbox taken apart & all the edges stiffened

 

Strangely, after this “hour’s work” it was getting dark, so I went in.